Visa Inc., Visa Europe, and Google announced that Google has received a worldwide license to Visa payWave, a near-field communication-based payment technology.

Visa payWave enables consumers to make secure payments at retail locations by waving their mobile phone in front of a payment terminal. PayWave currently is used at hundreds of thousands of retail locations worldwide, the companies said.

The agreement sets the stage for Visa-issuing banks worldwide to enable Visa account holders to add their credit, debit, and prepaid accounts to Google Wallet—a mobile application that turns a smartphone into a digital wallet.

 “This agreement builds on Visa’s strategy of enabling consumers to make mobile payments with whatever device they choose using the trusted accounts they already have,” says Jim McCarthy, global head of product, Visa Inc.

The recent news furthers Visa’s progress in making its products available as a payment option in any digital wallet, it said. This includes Visa’s own digital wallet announced earlier this year, which is designed to provide consumers with "click-to-buy" payment functionality and access to their Visa and nonVisa accounts using a personal computer or smart phone, to make purchases online and at retail locations.

Google Wallet is designed to enable an “open-commerce ecosystem” enabling consumers to carry payment cards, offers, loyalty, and gift cards. Google is also working with top retail brands to create a new mobile shopping experience.

Visa recently unveiled plans to accelerate the migration to EMV contact and contactless chip technology in the United States. The adoption of dual-interface chip technology will help prepare the U.S. payment infrastructure for the arrival of NFC-based mobile payments by building the necessary infrastructure to accept and process chip transactions that support either a signature or PIN at the point of sale, Visa says.

Visa’s plan to encourage—but not mandate—the U.S. adoption of dynamic chip authentication technology includes the following three initiatives: Expand the technology innovation program to merchants in the United States; build processing infrastructure for chip acceptance; and establish a counterfeit fraud liability shift.

Google this summer announced “Google Wallet,” a group effort involving Sprint, CitiBank, and MasterCard. With the associated app, a consumer will be able to make a POS mobile payment—but initially only through these specific entities.

http://corporate.visa.com/media-center/press-releases/press1149.jsp